Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) concluded its 39th Plenary and working group meetings held on its margin today, Thursday, November 21, 2024. The Plenary was held over two days in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, under the chairmanship of His Excellency Mr. Hani Mohammed Wahab, President of MENAFATF and Vice Minister of Finance of the Republic of Yemen (the Presidency State), who stressed the importance of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hosting the Plenary and its accompanying meetings and the Kingdom’s support for the Yemeni presidency of the group, its activities and its secretariat. The Plenary was attended by the President of the Financial Action Task Force (FAFTF), Ms. Elisa de Anda Madrazo, heads of delegations, and experts on combating money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing from member states, in addition to experts from observer states and international bodies in the group, most notably the Financial Action Task Force, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the Egmont Group.

The Plenary discussed and approved a number of reports, including the mutual evaluation reports of the Sultanate of Oman and the Republic of Djibouti, and the self-reports of the Syrian Arab Republic, the Republic of Yemen, and the State of Libya. The Plenary also adopted procedures for the mutual evaluation and follow-up operations for the next round, the training programs plan for 2025, the recommendations of the 2024 Typologies and Capacity Building Workshop - Doha recommendations, and the review and approval of the reports of the working groups, committees, and forums affiliated with the group were also adopted. It was also agreed that the United Arab Emirates would assume the position of Vice-President of the group for the year 2025, as well as the approval of the priorities of the joint presidency of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates of the group for the years 2025 and 2026. The Plenary also blessed the efforts to establish an informal network for asset recovery for the Middle East and North Africa region - MENAARIN, and welcomed the hosting of the network’s secretariat by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority, and the hosting of the annual Plenary for the regional network in 2025, as well as the hosting of the United Arab Emirates and the State of Qatar for the annual Plenary of the regional network for the years 2026 and 2027, and encouraged the remaining member states of the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force to host and chair future meetings of the regional network.